1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to amusement rides and particularly relates to roller coasters that depart from the usual track configuration.
2. Prior Art
Since the early days of roller coasters, manufacturers have experimented with variations of a central theme, which is to provide amusement to passengers seated inside, on top of, on the side of, or under cars or assemblies coupled to tracks for movement thereon. Whether or not the passenger vehicle assumes the standard railway car configuration, the general effect attained is to statically couple passengers to their cars. Passengers are therefore carried through the same motions as the cars in which they ride and experience essentially the same gravitational forces that act upon the cars. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,531,459, 5,272,984, 5,463,962, and 5,595,121, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Passengers using the referenced inventions are rotated only when the tracks upon which they ride change orientation.
Some amusement devices, including roller coasters, attempt to deliver additional systems of rotation. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 142,605, 567,861, 2,535,862, 3,610,160, 5,433,153, 5,791,254, 6,095,926, 6,098,549, 6,158,354, 6,220,171, 6,227,121, 6,386,115, 6,405,655, 6,477,961, 6,513,441, 6,606,953, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. These known amusement devices are limited in their abilities and functions in that they do not allow for a passenger to rotate independently from the track orientation without the application of additional energy. Rather than derive such rotation from the track configuration, they require electrical, hydraulic, or pneumatic devices or direct gravitational force to rotate or right the passenger.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,479, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, allows for rotations of passengers based on track configuration via rails that at predetermined portions of the circuit become “displaced”. However, these passengers, after having been rotated, must again be rotated to their original orientation to enable them to exit the ride from an upright position. Furthermore, the referenced art does not depict or suggest a roller coaster or similar device that does not travel upon the rail or rails that induce rotation, meaning that more than the usual amount of bogies or wheel assemblies and accompanying structures are most likely needed to allow the prior art to function. These limitations most likely result in heavier, bulkier, and more costly than necessary vehicle assemblies and track structures. Also, the loss of kinetic energy due to unnecessary friction from constant contact of extra wheels with a rail or rails for the duration of a ride may limit the possible track configurations. In the prior art, only “rails” are described and depicted as the means for causing rotation that is independent of the track, and nothing else is suggested or implied as a means to cause such rotation. Yet another significant limitation is the prior art's inability to rotate passengers independently of the track more than a limited amount of degrees, such as the stated “720 degrees”. This is because there is a limit to how far the mechanical devices of the train can be moved by the displaced rail(s).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,943, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, is a coaster that can rotate passengers only 180 degrees on the vertical axis independently of the track orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,645, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, are coasters that allow passengers to travel on two opposite sides of one track system but do not allow for controlled passenger rotations independent of the tracks.
My own U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/448,654, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, is a roller coaster that uses control bars at predetermined points along the track to rotate passengers on a horizontal axis that is perpendicular to the track. The control bars are not continuous stationary control structures and are designed to rotate passengers a predetermined amount.
In the non-preferred embodiment of U.S. Pat. Application Publication # US 2006/0178221 A1, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, passengers may be rotated about at least two axes by a complicated gear assembly including a “toothed rack or the like” that may interact with “cam followers sector gears or the like placed on the track system”. It was not indicated or suggested in the prior art that the rotation of passengers could be derived through a simple mechanical linkage such as an element that is rotated directly by the track assembly which element which element then rotates passenger's seating by way of a suitable linkage. Furthermore, it did not suggest the possibility of deriving rotation from track mounted structures with simple, unvarying cross-sections such as a channel, slot, groove, rail, or bar.
In U.S. Pat. Application Publication # US 2007/0089632 A1, US 2007/0089631 A1, and US 2007/0089630 A1, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, more than two trains on more than two tracks are described, but each track has its own support spine or equivalent element which it does not share with other tracks.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,451,161 and 4,034,678, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, are toy systems that allow more than one ornament to travel simultaneously at a point along a track system, but they have limitations that obviously do not permit a human passenger. Furthermore, these referenced inventions do not right the ornament(s) while inverted.